Kittypet
by artist-in-the-tardis
Summary: Response to the NightClan Forum Challenge


I face Iceheart on the cliff. He sneers at me, "Hey, kittypet! You scared to fight? Is that it?"

"My name is Blackstripe," I growl, sounding almost as infuriated as I feel, which pleases me.

"Kittypet! Does the kittypet not want to fight? Maybe you should go back to your precious Twolegs!"

I feel like lunging at him, but I can't. He's my Clan mate.

"I'm not a kittypet! I have more warrior blood then you!" I spit angrily.

He hisses. "Oh, yeah! Well, tell that to your little mate!"

My heart freezes over. My mate, Angel, was a kittypet. My Clan almost exiled me when they found out, but they didn't. I never saw Angel again, and every day I think about her… how her beautiful tabby pelt rippled in the wind, her purr, how, when they made her leave… she had my kits with her. It broke my spirit to see her look back at me with her big blue eyes, pick up our smallest kit and padded off, with the other two following behind, not aware that they would never see their father again. Afterwards, I had almost left the Clan. I loved her and she loved me, but they threatened to kill her and the kits if she didn't leave and never come back. I always had a patrol of cats when I went out. As the moons dwindled, the patrol went to three cats, two, and finally one. Today, of all the cats in Shadeclan, I had to get Iceheart, who has teased me since we were kits.

"Don't make me attack you, Iceheart," I warn quietly, deadly serious. He flattens his ears.

"Well, kittypet? Do you want to fight?" Without waiting for an answer, he lunges at me. I race around him quickly.

"I knew it! You and your kittypet _dirt_ of a mate were always cowards!"

Suddenly, the cliff is ringed with deadly silence. For a heartbeat, I stand there, wind ruffling my grey fur. Swiftly, I run toward him and leap on his back. He turns over, trying to dislodge my claws, but I hold on, strengthened by my fury. I give him a good swipe on his leg. He stops wriggling and falls down, still with me on his back. He cranes his neck to look up at me.

"You- you can't kill me," he sneers, trying for bravado, "I'm in your Clan!"

I lean into his face. "Take back what you said about Angel."

"I won't, because it's true."

I hiss. "Take it back."

"No!"

Enraged, I pin him, digging my claws into his back. "I loved her!" I yowl angrily. "I- I still do."

Iceheart doesn't reply.

My eyes flare. In a moment, everything had changed. Without even thinking, I flash out and strike the back of his neck. My claws come in and out with a clean _snik. _Iceheart slumps to the plateau floor, dead.

Suddenly, my vision clears and I see him, see the claw marks on his neck. I stumble back, my paws stirring up bloodstained dust that swirls in red clouds. As if things could get no worse, a patrol of cats from my Clan emerges quickly from the brush.

"What's going on?" pants Pinetail, and then he spots Iceheart lying on the ground, dead. "Blackstripe! How did this happen…" He spots the blood on my claws and tufts of brown fur in my storm-grey pelt. "Murderer!" he yowls and lunges at me. Startled, I duck and he skids to a stop a rabbit's leap away. Hollymoon, Iceheart's sister, pushes her way to the front of the group and gasps. She turns a steely brown gaze on me. "Get out of here," she says in a low, angry voice.

"What? Listen, he-'' I start.

"GET OUT!" she roars, and I swear they can hear it in Starclan. Casting a frightened look at the rest of the patrol, who look murderous, I race through the gorse, away from everything.

As it starts to rain (a sign that Starclan isn't too pleased with me), I huddle under a tree far away from the place where Iceheart died. I don't ever want to set a paw in camp, on that plateau, or anywhere near it again. I'm obviously exiled from Shadeclan for murdering a clan mate. How could I have done that?

_Don't regret it, _mutters a small, dark part of me. _He would've murdered you first, you know. He was never kind to you! Never! The things he said about Angel were unacceptable._

"But I don't kill anyone who gets in my way! I'm not like that!" I cry to myself.

Curling up under the limited shelter of the tree, the fresh rain mingles with the tears that roll down my nose.

As I stumble through the rainy forest, fog starts to roll in slightly, and a light wind blows through my short grey pelt. I _struggle toward somewhere, into unfamiliar land, I'm sure. StarClan is guiding me somewhere. Rain splashes on my fur. I see something glinting. I jump under it and rolls down. Then the window shuts closed. StarClan has sent a Twoleg to me! I'm in a burden for murdering._

_ I hiss and squint, preparing for the worst. I scent Twolegs coming down with their huge feet, coming to whisk me to the Cutter. I let out a high-pitched meow of help, and then race through a hallway. _

_ I skid into another Twoleg room. These dens are huge. The scent grows stronger and a Twoleg enters the room. It's a she-Twoleg, I think, and not quite a kit. Just a little older._

_ She kneels down, her scent rather kind. I back away and spit. She draws her hand away and I expect her to hit me, or yowl something with the loud voices I've heard that Twolegs use._

_ I take that time to study it. I've never seen a Twoleg before, so it's kind of interesting. There are, of course, two legs that they walk on, this one's is covered with a strange blue material. Her chest is covered with a soft pink pelt that hangs loosely around her arms. Her face is strange, but it seems caring enough. She has a long sheen of brown hair cascading down her back._

_ I don't attack; rather wait to see what she does. She holds out her hand again, a bit more cautiously. I paw it. The girl smiles in happiness and bends down until we're eye level. I back away._

_ "I'm Lilac," she whispers. "What's your name?"_

_Blackstripe, __I want to say, but Twolegs can't hear cats (idiots) and I shouldn't form a name bond between this Twoleg and me. I'm going to leave this night, anyway._

_ All of a sudden, a large Twoleg male walks in. "Honey, is this one of those wild cats? You know not to let those in. Put it outside._

_ My heart races. __Yes! Put me outside!_

_The girl- Lilac- shakes her head. "This one is different," she says softly. The man says gruffly, "Fine. Put out some food for it in the kitchen. But only for this one night, remember!"_

_**TWO MOONS LATER**_

_ It's strange. I've stayed here, with the Twolegs, for two moons now. For some reason, I've grown… fond of them. Sure, the food they feed me is hard and brown, but it fills me up and I get it twice a day!_

_ But, beyond the soft life and the Twolegs, there's something deeper. I will never, I'm sure, be welcomed into a Clan again. I won't get kindness from any cat in the forest. Also, this Twoleg home- it reminds me of Angel. Sure, she didn't live __here __here, but every day I spend here reminds me once again of her._

_ "Oh, Smokey! Come for breakfast!" calls Lilac from the kitchen. I race in happily. I can still run, of course, because I haven't been to the Cutter. Apparently, Lilac's father doesn't like that other Twolegs take their cats to the Cutter, so I will never go._

_ The sun is sinking over the town, so I push the door open and pad outside. The fence is tall and solid, so it's impossible to get over- at least from inside the fence. My Twolegs never open the windows wide enough for me to get out, which is a shame. Suddenly, the old oak tree that hangs over my fence creaks and bends, and creeping on a branch is my old friend Barktalon! I shy away as he looks at me. But softly he calls, "Blackstripe! You're coming with me!"_

_ I look up. "What? Barktalon, you must have heard what I did... didn't you?"_

_ His eyes fill with sorrow. "Yes, I did. And it wasn't good. But I speak for Shadeclan, and they feel Starclan has punished you enough. I've come to bring you back!"_

_For a heartbeat, I feel happy. But then I realize: I'd have to leave Lilac, my new home… I'd leave Angel. "I can't," I mew, straightforward. As soon as I say it, it feels right. Barktalon looks at me but nods like he understands. Then, with another rustle, he slides down and is gone. For a minute, I sit there, the wind rustling my pelt just like it did on that cliff all those moons ago. _

_Then I turn and go inside the house. Lilac will be expecting me._


End file.
